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Do we need tiger proof the courses again ?

Breaking 79

Breaking 79

Ankle
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So after watching four rounds at the Sony it appears length of the tee is becoming an issue. For example. On #12 what's been a 3 wood or iron of the tee has become a driver hole. They cut the corner, over the trees into the rough. Leaves them with a simple 60-70 yard pitch as opposed to a 160 yard 8/9 iron. Seems like today's golfers could care less about being in the fairway. I remember when tiger came onto the scene and his 320 yard drives where eye popping. Now we got guys like woodland and Thomas hitting 3 woods 300+ and drivers 340+.
One example was years ago, vijay would tee of at 18 and drive the ball into the 10th fairway and hit a 120 yard wedge to the green. Waialae fixed that buy moving 4 palm trees next to the 18 tee box.

Soooo was this just one time deal with the course being so easy this year or is this going to be an issue as they season goes on.
 
The answer is not to lengthen courses. It's to change the balls. Force the PGA/USGA to soften balls (or whatever it takes to remove their distance). Expecting courses to remodel every couple years as players advance in skill is nuts.
 
how about letting grass grow and stop letting the crowds trample the rough down to fairway length
 
I don't think it's fair to change the game based off of the 5 top golfers in the world (however, that's basically what happened with the anchor). If you change the ball for everyone, the top 5 long driver's are still going to hit it farther than anyone else. Guys who were hitting it 290 might only hit it 265. You're still left with the problem that the longer hitters will always be longer. I advocate changing the courses.

It's not like the past 2 weeks were US Open conditions. They were meant to be scored on. JT took advantage and won. Simple.
 
End of the day, lowest score wins. Who cares what they shoot? Also, I believe the course played well under 7000 yards which is by far not the norm on the PGA Tour.
 
Same course the winning scores have fluctuated over 10+ strokes. Courses like this rely on the weather to make them harder, when it's as calm as it was this past weekend, people go low. No need to go around changing the course.
 
Lack of wind had a factor in what the guys did this week. But I don't mind guys playing bomb and gouge. Let the guy with the best game that week win.
 
I'm of the camp that watching these dudes play ludicrous golf us mere mortals couldn't dream of is damn entertaining. Besides, it's far from all the guys out there - a lot of these guys aren't long enough to take that approach.

Plus, it doesn't always work, otherwise guys like ZJ and Furyk wouldn't still be winning.
 
I don't care if the winner shoots -25 or +10, he still beat the other guys. the average joe couldn't break 100 on those courses, I think they are hard enough as it is
 
I don't think this is going to continue this year. They had great scoring conditions this past week and many players proved it was possible to go really low on any given day. JT just proved to do it every day. I think par is just a number and records are meant to be broken, so I say lets keep the technology coming.
 
Grinding is only fun to watch at the US Open and the Open Championship. Otherwise I want to see birdies and eagles.
 
No course should have to change their entire layout because the top 1% of the top 1% are really good. Just because Justin Thomas is crazy long and can cut corners does not mean 99.9% of the rest of golfers who play that hole can.

Stop changing the game for amateurs just because the longest guys on the PGA Tour are really long. It's dumb.
 
I have never understood wanting to roll the ball back or tiger proofing. All you are doing is punishing the shorter players. If you take a par 5 that shorter players can get home in 2 with driver - 3 wood. If you roll the ball back and now shorter players can't get home on that same par 5. The longer player still has the advantage. People need to embrace the tech and realize the game has changed and stop trying to turn the game back to 1960.
 
Its been proven time and again grow the rough and it negates the length advantage unless they hit the fairway.

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No. You are talking about only 0.01% of the worlds golfer's being able to hit it too far. A "tour only" ball is the answer. Pro golf is entertainment plain and simple and should have some different rules.
 
Tiger proofing might've raised the scores to par a little but it made it easier for Tiger and the other longest hitters to dominate the field. Tightening and shortening courses, growing penal rough, and tricking up long approaches could level the field some, but the US Open every week would get old. Let guys play their games. They all have their strengths and each strategy has it's pros and cons. I don't care what the final score is to par, the winner beats the best in the world week to week, and we all see some stupid amazing shots played. Let it be.
 
No. The driving distance on the PGA Tour has only gone up 4 yards since 2004, contrary to what your average golfer believes.


Year PGA Tour avg. driving distance PGA Tour leader (yards) Players avg. over 300 yards
2015 289.7 Dustin Johnson (317.7) 26
2014 288.8 Bubba Watson (314.3) 25
2013 287.2 Luke List (306.8) 13
2012 289.1 Bubba Watson (315.5) 21
2011 290.9 J.B Holmes (318.4) 21
2010 287.3 Robert Garrigus (315.5) 12
2009 287.3 Robert Garrigus (312) 13
2008 287.3 Bubba Watson (315.1) 13
2007 288.6 Bubba Watson (315.2) 18
2006 288.9 Bubba Watson (319.6) 20
2005 288.4 Scott Hend (318.9) 26
2004 286.5 Hank Kuehne (314.4) 15
2003 285.9 Hank Kuehne (321.4) 8
2002 279.5 John Daly (306.8) 1
2001 278.8 John Daly (306.7) 1
2000 272.8 John Daly (301.4) 1
 
Nope let the boys play their games and let the scores be what they are.

Some courses are designed to be played with certain weather conditions such as wind and if it ain't blowing then the course will play different and usually easier.

Tiger proofing didn't work then and it won't work now. Sure it may have slowed Tiger down but he still won a ridiculous amount of tournaments.


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tahoebum said:
No. The driving distance on the PGA Tour has only gone up 4 yards since 2004, contrary to what your average golfer believes.


Year PGA Tour avg. driving distance PGA Tour leader (yards) Players avg. over 300 yards
2015 289.7 Dustin Johnson (317.7) 26
2014 288.8 Bubba Watson (314.3) 25
2013 287.2 Luke List (306.8) 13
2012 289.1 Bubba Watson (315.5) 21
2011 290.9 J.B Holmes (318.4) 21
2010 287.3 Robert Garrigus (315.5) 12
2009 287.3 Robert Garrigus (312) 13
2008 287.3 Bubba Watson (315.1) 13
2007 288.6 Bubba Watson (315.2) 18
2006 288.9 Bubba Watson (319.6) 20
2005 288.4 Scott Hend (318.9) 26
2004 286.5 Hank Kuehne (314.4) 15
2003 285.9 Hank Kuehne (321.4) 8
2002 279.5 John Daly (306.8) 1
2001 278.8 John Daly (306.7) 1
2000 272.8 John Daly (301.4) 1
Click to expand...

The number of guys who hit is longer than 300 yards has gone up, and more of those guys are now ranked in the top-10. As a result, we simply see more dudes driving it 300+ on Sunday. I think that exacerbates the view that players are too long. A Sunday afternoon duel between a guy who hits it 310+ yards and 320+ yards is happening more frequently.

I don't think the courses need to overhaul design or extend the length. If they're really that interested in defending par, I think they should take a look at making more areas away from fairways similar to the native areas such as seen at Pinehurst No.2. Make missing the fairway more than a conventional gouge.
 
Breaking 79 said:
So after watching four rounds at the Sony it appears length of the tee is becoming an issue. For example. On #12 what's been a 3 wood or iron of the tee has become a driver hole. They cut the corner, over the trees into the rough. Leaves them with a simple 60-70 yard pitch as opposed to a 160 yard 8/9 iron. Seems like today's golfers could care less about being in the fairway. I remember when tiger came onto the scene and his 320 yard drives where eye popping. Now we got guys like woodland and Thomas hitting 3 woods 300+ and drivers 340+.
One example was years ago, vijay would tee of at 18 and drive the ball into the 10th fairway and hit a 120 yard wedge to the green. Waialae fixed that buy moving 4 palm trees next to the 18 tee box.

Soooo was this just one time deal with the course being so easy this year or is this going to be an issue as they season goes on.
Click to expand...

I don't think anything needs to change. What we saw was brilliant high risk, high reward golf played by a few guys that just had it going. The lines I watched were nearly impossible, but guys playing at their best got it done and saw a big advantage from it. Courses like Waialae will naturally get increasingly difficult as their trees grow, and players will have to adapt again.

It's also a really tough sample because the wind was abnormally calm for that golf course. Some of the holes seemed very short because the players were not hitting into the wind like they would normally. I think at worst, extending a few bunkers would be all that course needs to do to become appropriately more difficult.
 
There is a very simple way to stop the players from driving the ball 340 on average... Water the golf course. I watched half the field get about 75 yards on the ground last week, and I think that creates a false understanding of their real numbers.
 
Canadan said:
There is a very simple way to stop the players from driving the ball 340 on average... Water the golf course. I watched half the field get about 75 yards on the ground last week, and I think that creates a false understanding of their real numbers.
Click to expand...
So damn true! It really is that simple.
 
The rough on tour is too short aside from a few majors. They need to make rough more of a penalty.
 
Canadan said:
There is a very simple way to stop the players from driving the ball 340 on average... Water the golf course. I watched half the field get about 75 yards on the ground last week, and I think that creates a false understanding of their real numbers.
Click to expand...

Yep. Thats where a lot of the excessive distance #s come from.
 
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